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Hamme (Municipality, Province of East Flanders, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Hamme - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 June 2006

Presentation of Hamme
Municipal flag of Hamme

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Presentation of Hamme

The municipality of Hamme (23,368 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 4,021 ha) is located in the north-east of the province of East Flanders, on the confluency of the rivers Durme and Scheldt. The municipality of Hamme is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Hamme, more industrial, and Moerzeke, more rural.

The Van Bogaert-Wauters Archeological Museum, located in Hamme, shows more than 4,500 stone, earthenware, bronze and glass artifacts collected in the valleys of Scheldt and Durme, dated from the Prehistoric times to the XVIIth century.
The Priester Poppe's museum, also located un Hamme, recalls the life of the local priest Edward Poppe (1890-1924). The priest was also an artist, who designed the first flag of the Eucharistic Crusade (Eucharistische Kruistocht). He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999.

Another famous child of Hamme is the writer Filip De Pillecyn (1891-1962). Pillecyn was Edward Poppe's classmate in the seminary of Sint-Niklaas: Poppe ranked first in Dutch whereas Pillecyn ranked first in religion! Pillecyn graduated in German philology at the University of Leuven. He later wrote articles for the newspaper De Standaard and the Christian social weekly De Tijd. He got his first sucess as a writer in 1931 with his novel Blauwbaard. In 1936, he was awarded a prize by the Province of Antwerp for his novel Hans van Malmedy, based on his tenure of teacher in the Eastern cantons. The Flemish Provinces awarded him in 1942 another prize for his book De Soldaat Johan. In the meantime, he wrote the novel Monsieur Hawarden, from which a film was made. After the Second World War, he was jailed for "cultural collaboration" with the Germans and released in 1949. He wrote in 1949 in the jail of Sint-Gillis his masterwork Mensen achter de dijk.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 18 June 2006

Municipal flag of Hamme

The municipal flag of Hamme is white with two interlaced green and blue chevrons.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 5 June 1978, confirmed by Royal Decree on 38 July 1978 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 16 June 1979.
The two chevrons symbolize the two merged municipalities of Hamme and Moerzeke. Green comes from the former arms of Hamme, whereas blue is the colour of the field of the former arms of Moerzeke.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 18 June 2006